uires more
attention and the hours are longer; that is, they seem longer. Besides,
it's hard on the eyes."

"You mean on the ears," suggested Miss Muffet.

"No! on the eyes; you have to look interested."

"Oh! I understand," said Miss Muffet. "When first I heard about your
being invited to dinner at Sindbad's and listening to his first tale, it
seemed the very nicest thing in the world. And how unexpected it was,
after you had enjoyed it, for him to hand you a hundred sequins and say,
'Take this, Hindbad, and return to your home, and come back to-morrow
and hear more of my adventures.' Weren't you surprised to hear a story
and get a hundred sequins besides?"

Hindbad said that he was surprised at first, but after a day or two he
began to look at it more in a business way. He had always made it a rule
to be thorough, for whatever was worth doing was worth doing well, and
he determined to be the very best listener in Bagdad.

"You see, in my country, we have a great many gentlemen who gain wealth
by having adventures. When they come back from their shipwrecks, they
naturally want to tell about them; but there's so much competition that
it's hard to get a hearing. When they meet with people, like those
horrid Wise Men of Gotham, who prefer their own shipwrecks, they go into
a decline."

His eyes filled with tears, and Miss Muffet was sure that he was one of
the most sympathetic men in the world.

"Now I had a great advantage," he went on; "I never had a shipwreck of
my own, so that I could not be reminded of something that would make me
interrupt. And then it is easy for me to have a story seem strange. I
seem to have a natural gift for it. Any one can be surprised the first
time he hears an adventure, but if one is to become a professional
listener he must cultivate the habit of being surprised. Now that story
about the roc's egg grows upon me; indeed it does! I don't think I
appreciated it at first. That's the way with all big things; it's some
time before you take them in. Even Mr. Sindbad says that it didn't seem
as big when he saw it as it does now when he remembers it. And whenever
I hear about those huge serpents it makes me shudder, and I ask Mr.
Sindbad to hurry on and tell me that he really did get away from them. I
can't stand the suspense. The cannibals are frightful creatures, Miss
Muffet; they say they eat people. Mr. Sindbad has a perfect genius for
having accidents. They come in the most unexpected